


A Glaring Murder

by Freckledbun



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Blood and Gore, Drug Use, Incest, M/M, Multi, Twincest, Violence, everyone is twins
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-03
Updated: 2018-08-11
Packaged: 2019-04-17 23:04:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14199594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Freckledbun/pseuds/Freckledbun
Summary: Akira Kurusu is a popular social media tycoon and is best friends with Goro Akechi, a celebrity detective. Together they navigate dealing with their brothers and each other. They both have dark secrets they keep from the world. Join Akira, Ren, and the Akechi family on their adventures and see how everyone will react when the truth comes out.





	1. Chapter 1

Akira Kurusu had a secret. Actually, he had about twenty secrets, but Goro Akechi knew all of them. Actually, he probably didn’t, but he wanted to believe he did. They were best friends after all. Akira’s biggest secret was that he was a gigantic liar. Akechi only knew this because he was an even bigger liar. The two of them knew everything about each other; at least that’s what Akechi thought.

It was late, later than would be considered socially acceptable to drop in on an acquaintance, but Akechi wasn’t any old acquaintance. He had met Akira due to his work as a detective prince on his TV show: Serial with Akechi Goro, or “SWAG” for short. Working for the police solving crimes was his day job, but he also filmed his crime show where celebrity guests, the audience, and viewers at home were invited to try to solve real-life mysteries as they were revealed. Akechi had invited Akira, a prominent social media super star, onto the show and they hit it off immediately. Well, maybe there were a couple of bumps at the beginning, but Akira warmed up to the detective when he found out Akechi had a twin, a fact practically unknown to the public at large. Akira had lit up, saying he too had a twin. This was of course a giant lie, as Akira was prone to do, but Akechi gave him credit for trying to fleece him. A lot of people had twin fetishes. He was used to that. But after he was able to get Akira to open up, they ended up becoming pals. Akira eventually started dating his brother, Crow, but there were no hard feelings between them. It was too good of a friendship to ruin with pettiness. Crow had won his heart fair and square.

Either way, Akechi was undeterred by the time or the lack of a boyfriend as he walked into café Leblanc way past business hours. He wanted to chat with Akira over coffee, their shared passion. His friend wasn’t in the café anymore, so he must have been in his living quarters, the attic above the shop, where all his Youtube magic took place. Akechi had texted him that he was coming over, but he never saw it seeing as there was no read receipt. That was fine. They’d surprise each other regularly. Unfortunately, Akira had missed the text for a reason. When Akechi reached the top of the stairs he called out in a singsong tone.

“Oh Akira—“ but he cut himself off and regretted opening his mouth at all.

On the bed across the room was Akira all right, only his pants were thrown on the floor, his knees were bent, and there was a stranger paused inside of him. Said stranger had one hand cupped over Akira’s mouth and the other was pinning his arms over his head, leaning over him to seemingly whisper dirty words in his ear. They both had stopped dead at Akechi’s voice and both sets of eyes were on him, one pair grey, one pair gold. Now Akechi was no stranger to Akira’s sexual deviance, so this scene wouldn’t have seemed weird if it were not for the fact that the person inside of his best friend looked exactly like Akira to a T. So he wasn’t lying about having a twin. How about that?

Akira struggled under his unnamed twin and freed his arm, pulling the hand away from his mouth. “Akechi. I can explain,” he said as he fought his brother’s hand away. The aforementioned brother was not having it and kept trying to re-pin him. Eventually he had Akira’s wrists slammed against the sheets on either side of his head.

“You can join if you’d like,” the unknown boy said with a shrug.

“I’d like to talk to Akira,” Akechi demanded politely, his fake charm turned up to eleven as a defense mechanism against the strange confrontation happening before him.

“We’re not done,” he said back, glaring at Akechi darkly. The detective could see that this one was clearly the evil twin.

Akechi saw Akira give him an apologetic look and he sighed. “I will wait downstairs then,” he decided and left down the stairs he came up on. He heard creaking and noises he would have rather not heard from above the café, indicating they had continued their excursion. Akechi sat on a bar stool with crossed legs and pursed lips.

Eventually Akira reappeared down the steps. He was now wearing his pj pants and a distasteful hickie necklace. He sheepishly stepped behind the counter to start making them both coffee, the least he could do. “So,” he started after a long, awkward silence.

“So you do have a twin,” Akechi said with narrowed eyes at him. He saw Akira flinch. Good.

“I told you I did,” he disputed, furrowing his brows as he waited for the water to heat up, keeping his back turned to his friend. “You just didn’t believe me.”

“Well we’re met before,” came an unapologetic voice from the stairs. It was the twin. He was cold and cool with one hand casually in his pocket as he leaned on the banister. It was a sharp contrast to the soft cat Akechi called his best friend.

“I don’t believe we have,” Akechi said sweetly. The polite boy act was pathological. He wanted to yell at Akira. It was annoying that he couldn’t do that in front of the stranger.

“Oh we sure have,” he said, reaching up with his hand curled in the known symbol for “gun.” This caught Akechi’s attention as he watched the boy with Akira’s face do a pantomime of himself pleasuring a gun with his mouth as he stared directly and intently at the detective, sparking a memory in him.

“That was you!?” Akechi exclaimed, voice cracking. He cursed himself for that. He felt his face get hot with something between rage, embarrassment, and lust. He saw Akira covering his face with his hands and felt like he wanted to do the same, but resisted.

“Ren, why?” Akira complained.

“I tried to tell him, but he wouldn’t listen,” Ren, apparently, said with a shrug. Akechi remembered that encounter. He had tried to say his name was Ren, hadn’t he? He also had let Akechi stick a gun in his mouth and fuck him. Akechi felt feverish. This was too much.

The detective sighed. “Well…Ren…Akira had said you were away. When did you get back?” He said his name carefully. It tasted bad in his mouth.

“Last month,” Ren answered flatly. “Akira never mentioned he was fucking Akechi from TV,” he snickered in a nasty way.

“I didn’t really have a chance,” Akira hissed back.

“Yeah you didn’t even visit me,” Ren mocked being hurt with a hand on his chest.

“You were in solitary!” Akira blurted out and immediately covered his mouth with his hands. He turned around to pour everyone coffee and stay out of the conversation.

Ren laughed darkly. “Yeah, well you could have written.”

“You were in prison?” Akechi asked, cutting in to what seemed to be a private matter that he was frankly mad Akira hadn’t told him about. Akira apparently had some pretty dark secrets he didn’t know about, which was hard to top considering Akechi knew about his drug abuse and sleeping around with people old enough to be their father. But then again, Akechi wasn’t one to talk.

“Oh yes,” Ren said with a smirk as he descended the stairs to approach the celebrity crime fighter.

“Do you mind if I ask what you did?” Akechi continued his interview with a sweet grin. “Forgive me for being blunt, but I can just look it up later, so there’s no point in being coy about it.”

“Of course not,” Ren said with a twinkle in his eyes, stopping in front of the detective. “I assaulted a politician.”

“Oh. Delightful,” Akechi somehow sneered and grinned at the same time. “Akira,” he turned his attention away from Ren to get back on track. “Does my brother know about this?”

“Uh. Well I told you both I have a twin…” Akira said softly as he came around the bar, having set the three drinks on the counter.

“No. Does he know about your fetish?” he corrected flatly.

“It’s not a fetish. That’s rich coming from you, seeing that you and Crow and me—“

Akechi cut Akira off. “I think you should tell him. This is pretty serious.” As Akira was sitting down, Akechi got up and grabbed his wrist. “Come stay with me tonight. It’s no good for you to be with a thug. Who knows what he might do.”

“Hey,” Ren hissed.

As Akechi started to drag Akira away towards the door, the quiet protesting fell on deaf ears, so Akira snickered nervously and called out to Ren. “Help. I’m being kidnapped~” He barely sounded serious.

Before Akechi could even finish stepping outside, Ren had closed the distance between them and had his fist twisting the front of Akechi’s pea coat. He had a rather fancy looking hunting knife with a marbled blade raised threateningly at the detective as he tried to yank him away from his brother.

“Ren!” Akira scolded.

Akechi barely blinked before he had his gun out and pressed to Ren’s forehead. They both paused in a stalemate.

“Akechi!” Akira scolded him too. “Both of you cut it out.”

“That weapon is surely a violation of your probation,” Akechi said with a nasty grin, ignoring Akira.

“Do you have a permit for that gun?” Ren shot back.

“I’m the police,” Akechi assured with a shrug, keeping his gaze trained on Ren. It took Akira grabbing his hand and stilling his itchy trigger finger to make him back down. He lowered his weapon and scoffed. “Akira, how are you two even related? Your brother is a monster.”

“And you’re not?” Ren rebutted but returned his blade to the leather holster hooked to the back of his jeans.

“What is that supposed to mean?!” Akechi growled. What did he know? What did Akira tell him? He stopped and took a deep breath. He smiled politely and regained his composure. He laughed and shook his head. “This is pathetic. We’re going to go speak with Akira’s boyfriend and you’re more than welcome to join if you’d like, Ren. I won’t stop you.”

Ren was taken aback slightly by the sudden mood shift and narrowed his eyes but he just shrugged in response for lack of anything else to do. “Sure.”

“Then it’s settled!” And off they went to Akechi and his twin’s shared apartment to out Akira and make him even more embarrassed and uncomfortable. It might have been cruel, but Akechi liked seeing Akira squirm. Ren’s existence was complicating things quite a bit as it turned out, but while he was off in prison, abandoning his family, Akechi had been taking care of Akira just fine. His friend didn’t need some delinquent brother distracting him from what was really important and dragging him down with him. Akechi wouldn’t allow it. He’d stop Ren from poisoning anyone else with his filth and return him to the dumpster where he belonged. First he would make Akira see him for what he really was so that he would see reason. He couldn't have his best friend hating him, now could he? Goro Akechi had a secret and only his brother and Akira knew about it. He couldn’t allow Ren to find out if he didn’t know already. Even if Akira was a great liar, Akechi was better. He’d make sure to separate them perfectly and Akira would never be the wiser. He would never see it coming.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading the first chapter of yet another chaptered fic! I haven't abandoned the others yet, no worries. This is for camp nano so like It Needs Work, it will be largely unedited so sorry in advance if there are any mistakes!
> 
> Anyway, I have a lot of shenanigans in store and a huge outline. Hopefully everyone enjoys the boys. I know it's not my normal selfcest but what can I say, I like what I like. There is going to be a lot of dark stuff and some of it might be hard to digest so bare that in mind if you keep reading.
> 
> Thanks again for all the positive support! I'm worried this fic won't be as likeable as my other ones, but I hope you give it a chance.
> 
> As always, stay tuned!


	2. Chapter 2

When the merry band arrived back at Akechi’s apartment, his twin was watching Batman on the TV. He paused it immediately though when he saw his boyfriend come into the apartment too. He wasn’t going to stop what he was doing just for Akechi, but he got up to go and give Akira a big warm hug and ruffle his hair. He then laid eyes on Ren and paused.

“Two Akiras?” He said with a puzzled tone. “Oh wait! This must be your twin right?” 

Akira grinned and held on to his partner, moving him aside to let Ren in. “Crow, this is my brother, Ren. Ren, this is Kogoro, my boyfriend.” 

“Your names are Goro and Kogoro? Wow. You had shitty parents,” Ren laughed as he meandered in and kicked his shoes off. 

“Ren…” Akira warned. 

“Oh it’s okay,” Akechi said with a fake smile. “Ren wouldn’t know about us being orphans.” This bitch comment just made Ren roll his eyes. “Anyway, we aren’t just back to introduce the two of you,” he started. 

“Oh?” Crow raised his eyebrows.

Ren knew what Akechi was doing, which is why he came to meddle. He wasn’t going to let some snake humiliate Akira. He decided to stop him in his tracks. He had thought up his own defense against Akechi’s manipulation, a real wrench in his plans. “Oh yes. No sense in introductions when we’re already met.” 

“I don’t believe we have?” Crow said honestly, sounding much more convincingly innocent than Akechi had earlier. Ren could see why Akira picked him over Akechi. He seemed sweet and didn’t have a nasty look in his eyes. Too bad Ren was going to have to hurt him to help Akira.

“Ren,” Akira hissed at him, realizing what he was doing. “Don’t,” he whispered.

Ren, not listening to Akira, as was apparently normal, leaned over to whisper something in Crow’s ear. It took a moment for him to finish detailing when they had met before Crow reeled back from the both of them, looking horrified. He put a hand on his chest and stared in shock. 

“T-that was you?!” 

“I told you it was,” Ren shrugged. 

Crow put a hand over his mouth and looked to Akira with big, concerned eyed. “Oh no. I’m so sorry…” 

“Looks like you’re a cheater,” Ren said with a smirk, satisfied with his deflection. 

“Don’t blame him for your dirty tricks, coward.” Akechi pointed at Ren with a sneer. “Akira never told us anything about you, and clearly for good reason. He was obviously ashamed of his terrible sibling. You’re nothing but a curse on his life. I bet you’ll sooner rather than later go back to jail, abandoning him yet again. You’re the worst type of selfish.” He smirked triumphantly. Akechi clearly had a superiority complex and also loved to hear himself talk. Ren caught that quickly. 

“Fuck you!” he spat back over the jail comment, but then sneered. “Oh wait, I already did.” 

“Ren, you were in prison?” Crow asked softly. “Wait, you fucked Akechi?” He scowled. “Akechi!” he finally settled on scolding his brother. 

“You did it too!” Akechi growled. “He’s clearly the worst kind of trickster to have fooled us both.” 

“I did too,” Akira announced suddenly with an arm raised in the air to call attention to himself. He was trying to take the focus off Ren before things got any worse.

“Wait, you did what?” Crow looked at him, hurt in his eyes. 

“Yeah. We came over to tell you that. Akechi caught us…” 

“They’re disgusting harlots, aren’t they?” Akechi pushed the topic, shaming his best friend. He was at least a little hurt that Akira didn’t pick him, so taking him down a peg wouldn’t hurt too much, but would make Akechi a little less bitter. 

“I’m having a panic attack. I need a cigarette.” Crow crossed the living room and headed out onto the balcony to find his emergency smokes, turning away from them to light up. 

“Crow…” Akira frowned but stayed where he stood.

“You’re a bad omen. You ruin everything you touch, do you know that?” Akechi said to Ren.  
  
Akira noticed Ren reaching behind himself to unsheathe his knife, so he quickly grabbed Akechi’s wrist to pull him down the hall into his bedroom and shut the door. “Stop attacking him,” Akira warned with a hushed tone once they were alone. 

Akechi frowned and crossed his arms, popping his hip. “He’s a menace. I don’t want him to drag you down with him. You’re my best friend and I’m only concerned for your safety. I saw the way he had his hands on you.” 

“What have I told you about my business and your meddling?” Akira shot back. 

“I can’t help it. I’m just looking out for you,” the detective balked. He felt scummy with his friend reprimanding him. He might have been too harsh, but Ren was making his blood boil and he was always one to trust his gut on these matters. “I’m sensing something is wrong with him. I would never be able to forgive myself if I wasn’t able to protect you.” 

“I can’t help that he’s my brother. I love him. Please,” Akira practically begged with a serious gaze. He looked like a sad, baby angel and it made Akechi’s heart sink.

“Fine,” he huffed childishly. “I’ll try to play nice.” 

“You’re an actor. I’m sure you can do it.” Akira pat Akechi’s shoulder jovially, snickering, his mood instantly lifted. 

Back outside, Ren was sitting with his legs crossed and arms spread over the back of the couch. He was whining about how it was unfair that Crow had a fake ID and that he didn’t and how he wanted a cigarette. 

“I don’t have a fake ID,” Crow said, “I’m eighteen.” 

“But aren’t you a twin?” Ren stood up when Crow held out a cigarette to him and wandered outside to light it and schmooze with his brother’s boyfriend. Crow had honestly seemed like a fink right off the bat, but he apparently was cool on the inside if he smoked. Everyone knew smoking made you extra cool.

“Yes. Akechi is also eighteen.” 

“Oh. So. Akechi is a RAPIST!” Ren yelled inside towards the shut door, voice getting incrementally louder after each word. “We’re only seventeen you pervert!” 

Akechi slammed the door to his room open and stalked out towards the yelling, breaking his promise to Akira immediately. “Nice try, Ren, but this isn’t America. We’re perfectly legal here,” he explained matter-of-factually, like the priss he was. 

“Maybe from our hick town, but not Toyko, you sicko,” Ren blew smoke into the apartment at Akechi. 

Akechi curled his lip. There went his deposit. He was going to make Ren lick the tar off his wallpaper if he kept that shit up. “I don’t recognize your accent, Ren. Where are you two from again?” he pushed. 

Ren was about to say it, but then saw Akira’s face of disapproval and wide, scared eyes as he stood a few steps behind Akechi, so he stopped himself. “You’re a detective. Figure it out.” 

“Oh. Do you not want me to know?” Akechi smirked. “Do you have something to hide?” Something inside him knew this was childish, but he couldn’t control himself. 

“No. I just don’t want to make things easy for you,” Ren said, showing off that he was indeed just as big of a liar as Akira was. He was going to say it, so obviously him hiding it now meant he was totally lying. 

“In my experience, that is rarely all there is to it,” Akechi said, putting on his arrogant, know-it-all voice. “What are you hiding, Ren? You seem to have no shame in admitting you’re a jailbird. What’s worse than being a social pariah? Did you kill someone?” He laughed darkly. 

“We have a triplet!” Akira blurted out nervously, making Ren furrow his brow and Akechi turn back to him. “Y-yeah. We have another brother…” 

“Oh really?” Akechi seemed genuinely surprised but then also narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “What’s his name then?” 

“…Tanaka Taro?” Akira scrunched his face. Sorry, Ren. He tried. 

“Yeah right. Why is that the lie you went with?” Akechi asked with a squint. “You could have said anything but you said that. Is this a test?” 

“What. No?” 

“Hmm…” Akechi stared at him doubtfully.

“Oh my god,” Ren said in a ‘eureka’ moment, making Akechi curse and turn to him again. “You guys have a third brother!” As he declared that Crow chocked on his cigarette next to him. 

“I need a klonopin,” Crow muttered. 

“Oh can I have one?” Akira grinned.

“S-sure baby…” Crow tossed his butt off the side of the balcony and waddled inside to head for their medicine cabinet. 

“So you _do_ have another brother. Oh this is rich! You’re such a hypocrite. Get off all your self-righteous bullshit, Akechi. You’re the biggest liar here!” Ren laughed darkly. He was very proud of his deduction.

“Fine. You got us. We have a third brother; but he’s not exactly around or part of our lives. So it wasn’t relevant,” Akechi explained, sounding uncharacteristically sincere. “We were split up as kids after our foster parents died.”

Akira frowned and came around to join the circle. “I’m so sorry. That must have been hard.” 

“It was hardest on Crow. Honestly, I’m lucky I found him again later…I worked my ass off to get here and if it weren’t for that _scum_ setting fire to our home, we might have had very different lives.” Akechi scowled, clearly resenting this other sibling of his far more than he hated Ren, and seemingly with good reason. “He’s no brother of mine.” 

Akira might have been having a case of the water eyes, but Ren wasn’t buying it. “What’s his name?” he parroted Akechi’s earlier disbelief. 

“Ren,” Akechi sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. “I know we have gotten off onto the wrong foot, but I urge you not to push this matter further. He’s dangerous. I’m okay, but Crow, _your sibling’s boyfriend_ , suffered a lot of undue duress and he’s very sensitive now. He doesn’t need this dredged back up and for your own safety, you should stay away from this matter.” 

“Is that a threat?” Ren challenged. 

“Ren,” Akira hissed to him. 

“This isn’t a threat. If you dig any further, you will get hurt. That’s a promise,” Akechi warned. 

“And after all that about me being a danger to Akira, it was actually you,” Ren said with a sneer, pushing past him towards the door. “I never burned down a building with people inside.” He turned back to point at Akechi challengingly. “That’s your blood. Akira can do what he wants, but don’t accuse me of shit again or I’ll cut you.” With that he stormed out. 

Akechi curled his fingers into a fist and took a deep breath to try to calm down. “I could kill him,” he said, licking his lips. His tone could have either meant metaphorically or literally. Akira patted him on the shoulder and shook his head, making Akechi relax a little. “Okay. I won’t actually kill him. He’s just getting on my nerves. I told you. Only for work.” 

Akira looked away and nodded. “He’s my family. I want him to be safe too. Just give him a chance okay?” 

The detective nodded in agreement. He might have been proud and arrogant and most importantly: right, but he couldn’t say no to Akira. “I can’t help him if the third Akechi brother peels his skin off though.” 

“Oh god.” 

“Relax. There’s no way in hell he’ll track him down. He might not even be in Tokyo. _I_ don’t even know where his is,” Akechi said proudly.

“Yeah. You’re such a great detective.” Akira rolled his eyes.

Crow came back out, chipper now, and full of medicine. He offered an extra to Akira, who just dry swallowed it without a second thought. “What did I miss?” Crow wondered. 

“Nothing much. Ren is just going to find our long lost triplet,” Akechi said with mock enthusiasm. 

“Fuck. He’s going to die,” Crow muttered thoughtfully to himself. When he saw Akira’s upset face he spluttered and back traced. “Don’t worry! He’s way too hard to find. Ren’s not that smart. 

Unfortunately, Ren was that smart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait! I was planning on writing a ton but my life won't stop exploding in my face.
> 
> Ren and Akechi have issues they need to work out obviously.
> 
> Also the next few chapters have some pacing issues but I'm lazy so I'm sorry but I'm also not going to do anything about it. Sorry LOL
> 
> Anyway, Stay tuned!


	3. Chapter 3

Months ago, but not many, shortly after Akira had become friends with famous TV personality Akechi Goro, the internet sensation was paying his buddy a visit and something not great happened. As Akira approached the door to Akechi’s apartment to knock on it, he noticed a red smudge on the doorframe. He became slightly worried and tried the handle instead. It was unlocked. So Akira let himself in to investigate. That was a regrettable decision.

Inside, Akira found a man lying face down in a pool of his own blood. Akechi, his friend, was casually carrying cleaning supplies in from the kitchen. He was perfectly calm. They both took a pause at the sight of the other.

“Oh Akira. I didn’t know you’d be stopping by!” Akechi exclaimed as non-chalantly as possible. His lip twitched as he smiled.

“Mhm…” Akira affirmed and stared at him quietly. Akechi couldn’t tell what he was thinking.

“Ah. How did you get in?” Akechi pressed sweetly, setting his supplies down. He leaned his elbow on the kitchen island coolly.

“The door was unlocked,” he answered.

“Ah. Well…you are early! For…the costume party! Surprise!” Akechi grinned suspiciously. He didn’t sweat because he was a celebrity, but he felt himself sweating. The air between them was so tense, if you cut it, it would ricochet into both of their faces and leave welts.

“Oh…” Akira glanced at the body carefully. “Is that raspberry sauce then?”

“Yes. Yes it is. Very creative right?” Akechi lied.

“Okay. I left my costume at home. I’ll go get it.”

“Okay.”

“Okay.”

“…”

“…”

“You can’t leave.”

“Aw.” Akira frowned.

“Shut the door and lock it,” Akechi instructed, suddenly a lot less cheery. This was the worst possible thing that could happen. Well. Not the worst for either of them, but it was definitely up there.

Akira did as he was told. He considered bolting out the door, but he knew how these sorts of things went. He’d rather just have Akechi kill him and eat him and get it over with. At least if he was willing then maybe it could be fun or something. Who could say? Either way, he shut the door and locked it before turning back around to look at Akechi who was moving the cleaning supplies to the living room coffee table. “I’ll be good,” he muttered to his friend.

“Do I have to tie you up?” Akechi asked carefully. He sounded tired. He was probably panicked. He had no idea how to handle something like this happening most likely. Akira shook his head and Akechi got him to sit on the couch while he stood in front of him. “So this isn’t what it looks like.”

“What does it look like?” Akira wondered, glancing at the corpse without moving his head. He looked back up at Akechi and made him sigh heavily.

“I’m not a murderer,” he said. Akira looked at him harder. “I’m a hitman. People hire me to do it…well, person. One person hires me. Also! These people deserve it! If I didn’t do it, he’d just hire someone else and they’d die anyway. At least this way their crimes are exposed and their victims can have peace.” Akechi had a way of being self-righteous that was showing through as his anxieties grew.

“Cool motive, still murder,” Akira said and Akechi narrowed his eyes. Before his psycho friend could think about cutting him off, something came to him immediately and he switched gears. “Wait! Akechi, are you…are you using you career to cover up your crimes? Do you even solve real crimes? Are you even a real detective?”

“I do solve real mysteries,” Akechi argued. Akira gave him a look and he sighed. “However, yes. I also take the chance to hide the evidence of my hits along with exposing my targets’ crimes. You’re very perceptive. I should have realized you of all people would see the real me. This is disgraceful, but at this point, I can’t refuse a job or I might be the one to be killed next.”

Akira scrubbed his face. “We could run away?”

“No!” Akechi stopped and cleared his throat, changing his tone to more business and less freaking out. “I mean, no. This man needs to be brought to justice for what he’s done. If we leave, he will never stop.”

Akira watched Akechi’s face and sat quietly for a moment. There was more he wasn’t saying. As the police, he wasn’t allowed to kill, even undercover. This was off the books, so either he’d fallen into some shit or sought it out willingly. He needed someone to help him. Finally Akira sighed in defeat. “Alright.”

“Alright?” Akechi raised an eyebrow.

“I won’t tell anyone,” Akira clarified his decision. “What other choice do I have? If I tell, you’ll kill me, right?” He sounded like this wasn’t the first time someone had made that threat to him.

“I honestly don’t know what I would do. I was hoping you’d hear me out and it would be settled at that. But look! It worked! You’re a good friend, Akira. The best I’ve ever had. Everyone out there lies and cheats for their own good and hurts everyone around them because they just don’t care. No one besides Crow has ever given a shit about me before.”

“…Does Crow know about this?”

“He does,” he paused, “I try not to do it where he would have to know. I usually don’t bring my work home, as it were, but this was an extenuating circumstance, and I knew he was out of the house.” That was a lot of excuse.

“I didn’t,” Akira muttered.

“Noted. Look, I can pay for you to see a therapist,” Akechi offered gently. He hardly seemed murderous at all standing there with someone else’s blood on his shirt and a concerned look on his beautiful face. There seemed to be a lot that Akira didn’t know about him.

“I’m fine. This isn’t the first dead body I’ve seen,” Akira said casually. It was a very cryptic statement. There seemed to be a lot that Akechi didn’t know about Akira.

“How’s this: you can go get a klonopin from the medicine cabinet while I get things cleaned up and we can start over from there,” Akechi offered again.

“I’m going to need way more than that,” Akira said as he stood up and headed for the hall, careful to walk around the giant blood puddle soaking into the white carpet.

“Take whatever you want then.”

“Great. I’m going to have ten of everything,” Akira said with a satisfied smile.

Akechi sighed. “Don’t overdose.”

Akira paused and looked over his shoulder at Akechi and just laughed loudly at him as he turned back around to disappear into the bathroom. Akechi wasn’t sure what was so funny. He was just concerned about his friend.

Eventually, Akira emerged from the bathroom, eating pills out of his pile like a handful of M&Ms. Akechi spied a familiar shape and color combination and slid over to grab the pill before Akira could ingest it. “Don’t take these ones.”

Akira frowned. “What? Why not? You said I could have any.”

“Just not these.” The murderer started cherry picking the aforementioned banned pills out of Akira’s mountain. He would have scolded him about this situation but he didn’t feel like he had room to argue the moral high ground for once in his life.

“What are they?” Akira wondered as his stash was pilfered.

“Antipsychotics,” Akechi said honestly. “They’re regulated. If you take them all, I can’t get more.”

“So is Crow’s Klonopin,” Akira shrugged.

“But his are as needed. These are daily,” Akechi grunted in frustration. Between the dead body staining his rug and Akira being a child, he was having a stressful night. “You can have anything else. Please just don’t take these.”

“You can just ask Tae for more,” he shrugged, not taking it seriously, divorced from everything going on.

“Ugh. Just don’t okay?! I don’t want to ask the doctor that let you become a drug addict and performs illegal experiments on you to give me more crazy pills, Akira! Okay?!”

“Jeez. Fine.” Akira shied away slightly from being yelled at.

Akechi frowned. “Sorry.”

“S’ok.” That was easy to fix apparently. “Have you considered therapy?”

“I tried it,” he admitted.

“Did it work?”

“What do you think,” Akechi muttered bitterly.

“No.”

“Bingo. You’re a better detective than me apparently,” he said as he went to go return his pills to the bottle.

Akira spent the rest of the night watching Akechi clean up a corpse. He didn’t seem to mind it. He was a morbid kid, but at least Akechi didn’t have to kill his only friend, so that was a big bonus. He also felt a little better having someone that knew his secret. It was like a large weight off his shoulders. He hoped Akira would stay.

\--

Akira knowing Akechi’s secret had been a great comfort to Akechi since that one time. Unfortunately, now that Ren was in the picture, he had no idea how much he knew or how much Akira had told him. He was a liability. He couldn’t have some punk blackmailing him or exposing him. As the trio discussed finding Ren, Akechi briefly daydreamed about finding a dismembered body instead. He inwardly smiled. He hoped his long lost sibling killed Ren and did Akechi and also the whole world a favor.

Unfortunately if Ren died, Akira would be sad and Akechi didn’t want that either. Wow, friendship was hard. Couldn’t Akira just get over it? Why did there have to be two of them? It wasn’t fair. He already had to share with Crow, but now Ren too? Ugh!

“Akechi,” came Akira’s voice.

“Huh?” Oh he’d been spacing out. Whoops. “I think your brother will be fine on his own. He has that big knife after all.”

“Didn’t you just say your triplet was a psycho?” Akira frowned.

“He is,” Crow said.

“Yes, but Ren seems to be an even bigger one,” Akechi decided. Akira made a face so he backtracked. “I’m sure he’ll be fine. It’s the middle of the night. How far can he even get?”

“Ren can be pretty persistent,” Akira muttered back.

“Well we’ll just wait for a phone call or until we have more information.”

“I mean, I can tell you where our brother is and I guess Ren will magically be there too?” Crow suggested.

“How do you know that information again?” Akechi pondered with a dry look. Crow was too pure for his own good sometimes.

“I’ve been paying his rent,” Crow admitted sheepishly.

“What? Why? With what job?” Akechi growled and scoffed and crossed his arms, having a tantrum of questions and emotions.

“I have a job,” row shrugged.

“Since when?!”

“Yeah. Where do you work?” Akira wondered less indignantly, but Crow played coy and wouldn’t answer them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long absence! I was finishing up school and then was out of the country! Thanks for the comments so far. This is my favorite story to write currently since it's the most "me" but I haven't abandoned my other fics either. I'm going to try to catch up, albeit slowly. Unfortunately I have a lot of school work soon.
> 
> Anyway, we now know a little more about Akechi. I have a lot planned for learning about everyone. I don't think this is my most well written tale, but it's definitely the most fun.
> 
> Either way, I appreciate everyone who takes time to read my things and comment! You all make my day.
> 
> Stay tuned for more drama~


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